Ashley - Starlight Express story

Ashley The Smoking Car - Part 4 - After The Race

I couldn't believe it - that scoundrel Greaseball!
He could have taken anyone else,
Buffy, one of the sleepers, even my big brother Flat Top (who is his biggest fan).
But no. He took me.

Paramedics arrived and asked frantically where the three engines were, and I pointed them in the direction of the train wreck.
Two paramedics escorted me back to the main track, they checked if I was ok, and declared that I should get myself properly cleaned up later, I needed a new paint job and a few dents fixing.
They said I was a bit shocked and I should sit and calm down.
I was given a blanket and told to stay put, but I couldn't.
Not when Bobo was somewhere else.

I asked around where Bobo was, and Espresso said that he had gone to repair yard C - the same one that Greaseball had been taken to.
I got Turnov to give me a ride to the repair yard, and a sight it was!

Repair men rushed around, passing each other parts and tools.
Along with the usual trains, a lot had come in from the race. C.B was here as well, I could hear him shouting delusionally.
Greaseball was on a stretcher, with a stressed Dinah next to him, she was begging him to open his eyes - but he didn't. I almost felt sorry for them.

When the race had ended Dinah found Greaseball immediately, she cried, and he had apologised, saying that he would change his ways, then he passed out. And by the looks of it he hadn't woken up since.

I called out for Bobo, and a repair man asked me if I was his race partner, I said I was, and he replied with:
"He doesn't want to see you,"
I stared at him in disbelief.
"B-but I need to!"
"He said that if a smoking car came to see him he didn't want to see her,"
His words cut through me like a knife.
"where is he?" I whispered.
The repair man sighed, and pointed to a shed with a curtain instead of a door.
I quickly dodged the repair man and ran to the shed.

Bobo was in there!
He was quite badly injured but he had been left alone to heal.
"Bobo!" I shouted, and tried to hug him.
But he shoved me away, he looked at me with such hatred in his eyes.
He started telling at me, telling me I was a cheating, lying coach who cared for nothing but myself.
I was flabbergasted, I took a step back as he continued to throw insults at me. He called me things that I had never heard him say, that I was just as bad as that C.B and that he never wanted to see me again.
He said that if smoking coaches were banned it wouldn't be soon enough.

I couldn't take it anymore, I ran out, tears streaming down my face.
Everything was blurry and distorted, and all I could hear was a high pitched ringing in my ears.
I ran. I ran all the way back to my own train yard and collapsed from exhaustion. *

I was a hot mess of tears and sweat when Buffy found me.
There were no questions asked - she held me in her arms and I cried onto her shoulder, and she stayed there with me until I dosed off.

*Hey people! It's the author speaking! I just wanted to say why Ashley was so exhausted. The coaches can go a short distance on their own, they have to have an engine take them pretty much everywhere. So when Ashley ran all the way back to her train yard, she really pushed the limits.
You will see in future episodes more about that.

Have a nice day!
Love, Charlotte